From former special counsel Robert Mueller's testimony to Donald Trump's skills at Ebola management, here are some of our top columns of the week.

In today's fast-paced news environment, it can be hard to keep up. For your weekend reading, we've started in-case-you-missed-it compilations of some of the week's top USA TODAY Opinion pieces. As always, thanks for reading, and for your feedback.

"Don’t let Robert Mueller’s understated performance fool you. Some people expressed disappointment that the former special counsel did not deliver more impassioned testimony when he appeared before the House Judiciary and Intelligence committees on Wednesday. Perhaps we have all seen too many movies and television shows in which the star lawyer gives a riveting closing argument that spurs everyone to stand and cheer. Instead, we saw a prosecutor behaving the way prosecutors should behave — cautiously, carefully and with restraint. ... Even though the facts came out at the hearing in halting fashion, they were devastating. Among them:

►Mueller’s investigation did not exonerate President Donald Trump

►Russian interference was not a hoax and the investigation was not a witch hunt ...

►Trump lied and directed others to lie to hide those facts ...

It took more than six hours to pry these details out of Mueller, but the facts are devastating. ... One reason he did not reach a conclusion about whether crimes were committed when he could not charge them was that he did not want to preempt the constitutional process for addressing presidential misconduct. He would not say out loud what that word is because he believes that process is not within his purview, as he said many times. The word is within the purview of Congress. The word is impeachment.

"(Last week,) I was driving down Interstate 81, returning from a family reunion in the mountains, when traffic slammed to a halt. There had been a very serious accident just in front of us. ... The most striking thing wasn’t the accident, which was awful. It was how well everyone else responded. When it happened, I was driving next to a group of motorcyclists from the Atlanta chapter of the Thunderguards, a black motorcycle club dating to the 1960s. They rushed forward to help immediately, as did, well, pretty much everyone else around. And more people kept drifting up to help from further away, bringing first aid kits, bottled water, blankets, or whatever they had that looked helpful. ... One of the things we’re constantly told is that basic decency is gone in America. But once you’re outside of the media/political bubble, most people seem to be awfully decent, and if anything, they seem to behave better when the going gets tough. That’s worth remembering as many media outlets keep telling us how awful we are and how much we hate each other."

"Imagine the drama if (former special counsel Robert Mueller) were to let loose and say whatever he wants: Think of me as a hostage, tied to this chair, my wrists in handcuffs, a gag stuffed in my mouth. I can’t help you. Do you understand? You will have to help yourselves. ... Of course I would have indicted Donald Trump if I could have. What don’t you get about 'if we had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have said that'? Or 10 textbook cases of obstruction of justice? ... To Republicans, I hope you can take off your partisan blinders sooner rather than later and come to terms with the damage this legally challenged president is doing. To Democrats, I am at wit’s end. I have done all I could, but it’s never enough for you. So with apologies to O.J. Simpson lawyer Johnnie Cochran, here are my final words: Don’t just teach; you must impeach. Don’t give a speech; you must impeach. If there's a massive breach, you must impeach. If it’s not a reach, you must impeach. If it’s no day at the beach, and it won't be, YOU STILL MUST IMPEACH."

"Robert Mueller came before Congress on Wednesday wielding enormous influence. ... If Democrats expected (him) to galvanize the nation in favor of impeachment, however, they sorely misread the man and the moment. Approaching the hearings with all the enthusiasm of a dental patient scheduled for root canal, Mueller stoically refused to shed new light on the dense, 448-page report his office issued. ... He reiterated that he didn't find enough evidence to prove any criminal conspiracy between Russians and the Trump campaign. As for obstruction of justice, the reluctant witness offered one-word, affirmative answers — Yes. No. Correct. True. ... As a private citizen, Mueller might well have had more leeway to share his opinions. He could have shared valuable insights into the reckless actions his report says were taken by Trump ... or offered insight into whether Trump, once out of office, should face criminal charges. ... In what might turn out to be a missed opportunity of historic proportions, Mueller simply wouldn't go there, leaving the Democrats ... (without) a guidepost on where to go from here."

"Last Thursday, as (President Donald) Trump was facing a firestorm over his raucous campaign rally, a 41-year-old man aired his grievance against Kyoto Animation by means of a literal firestorm. ... By the time the smoke had cleared, 34 employees — mostly young women — were dead and nearly three dozen were injured. In terms of the death toll, this was Japan’s worst mass killing in nearly two decades, sending shock waves throughout the island nation. ... The limited attention here in the United States cannot be explained away on account of distance. Compare the coverage with that of the mosque shootings last March in Christchurch, New Zealand, a location even farther from our shores. ... Mass shootings remain one of the most widely discussed topics here in the United States. By comparison, we just don’t seem to be as unnerved by mass killings carried out by other methods, unless of course they hint of terrorism, be it of foreign or domestic origin. ... Whatever the reason, the lesser attention given to mass killings that do not invoke guns is disrespectful to the victims whose lives are tragically cut short. Is the crime any less serious if there were no gunshots?"

"The World Health Organization has declared the Ebola crisis in Congo a 'public health emergency of international concern.' ... For its potential medical consequences, the epidemic is a major worry across the globe, including for the United States. But in the age of Donald Trump, the political consequences could be the more alarming menace. ... In 2014, a major outbreak of the disease occurred in the West African nation of Guinea and rapidly spread. ... Trump, already contemplating his presidential run, posted dozens of tweets in response to the outbreak. ... (He) advocated shutting down entry into the United States: 'A single Ebola carrier infects 2 others at a minimum. STOP THE FLIGHTS! NO VISAS FROM EBOLA STRICKEN COUNTRIES!' ... Some revealed Trump’s well-known germaphobia: 'Something very important, and indeed society changing, may come out of the Ebola epidemic that will be a very good thing: NO SHAKING HANDS!' ... A single case of the disease in the United States might be sufficient for Trump to declare an unjustified national emergency, exploiting the crisis for his own political ends."

"For 10 years I enthusiastically carried the Republican banner. ... I spent those years extolling the virtues of the party of Lincoln, articulating those values that I believe make America the greatest nation on earth: freedom, equality and unlimited opportunity. Republicans, I daily declared, were best positioned to preserve and expand those foundational American principles. My heart breaks as I sit here today in the final moments of a slow, three-year realization that the party of Lincoln is nearly dead. ... Too many Republicans in Congress have made an erroneous calculation that they must stand with Trump — or at least, stand in silence as the president goes off on one racist rant after another — in order to unify the party and increase their chances of electoral success in 2020. In fact, this weak-willed approach will have exactly the opposite effect. ... If Republicans are ever to have any chance at all of reclaiming our mantle as the party of Lincoln ... we must fully reject the ugly, racist, destructive politics of Donald Trump. Any other path is a complete betrayal."